(A) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to castable ceramic cements and more particularly relates to such cements which are mixed on site prior to casting and which have high temperature characteristics.
(B) History of the Prior Art
In the prior art, ceramic cements were frequently blended and cast on site. Packaging of such cements usually occurred by blending dry components which were then mixed with water to form the castable cement. Such cements had serious problems since measurement of the amount of water and uniform mixing were difficult to obtain under the variable conditions found outside of cement manufacturing plants or factories.
It has been known that two components mix systems could be prepared wherein one of the components contained a fixed amount of water such that the cement was formed when the wet mix and dry components were blended. Unfortunately, such two component mix systems generally had poor storage life. Such cements having poor storage life are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,226. Furthermore, such cements, after casting, had high densities which, in general, resulted in insulation properties which were not as good as desirable. In addition, such cements were found to have poor thermal shock resistance.